Increased levels of poverty, following the recession of the 1980s, have been blamed for the rising murder rates in Britain.

A study by the Crime and Society Foundation studied the backgrounds of the 13,140 murders committed in Britain between 1981 and 2000.

The study, conducted by Professor Danny Dorling, found that people living in the poorest neighbourhoods were almost six times more likely to be murdered than those living in the richest areas.

And, while the richest members of society were now less likely to be murdered than in the 1980s, the poorest in society were now more likely to be murdered, the report suggested.

The study found that the increased rate of murder was not distributed evenly across the population, as the murder rate had increased for men, but decreased for women. However, poverty was found to be the strongest determinant of an individual’s likelihood of being murdered. Professor Dorling said: “The rise in murder in Britain has been concentrated almost exclusively in men of working age living in the poorest parts of the country.”

However, Professor Dorling also found that the most common method of murder in poor areas involved the use of a knife or broken glass. He said that a higher proportion of rich people were killed by guns than poor people, suggesting that gun crime was not the main cause of high murder rates in poor areas.

The report concluded that the deeper causes of the increased murder rates were due to “social and economic policies pursued by successive governments during the 1980s and 1990s.” It stated: “The emergence of mass unemployment in the 1980s and the increased levels of poverty that continue to this day have contributed to social stresses and conflict with long-term consequences.”

Professor Dorling suggested that the murder rate represented only “the tip of an iceberg of violence”. He said: “The rate of murder in Britain can be seen as a marker of social harm. The rate has risen most for those demographic groups and in those areas, for whom and where people have become relatively poorer over time.

“For murder rates to rise in particular places… life in general has to be made more difficult to live, people have to be made to feel more worthless.”

(KMcA/SP)